8/17/2021
Northlake, IL – August 17, 2021 – Empire Today, LLC also known as Empire Carpet® and Empire Flooring® (“Empire” or the “Company”), the country’s largest shop-at-home, direct-to-consumer flooring company, announced today that an affiliate of Charlesbank Capital Partners (“Charlesbank”) is making a majority investment in the Company. Charlesbank is an experienced middle-market private investment firm based in Boston and New York. Management and an affiliate of existing investor H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”) are also making significant new investments into the business.
Based in Northlake, Illinois, Empire® operates in about 75 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. A leading provider of installed home improvements since 1959, the Company is well-known for its “800-588-2300 Empire Today” jingle. Empire serves residential customers with a wide selection of carpet and hard surface flooring products for homes and also sells fully-installed flooring solutions to businesses, multi-family properties, restoration companies, iBuyers, REITs, and other organizations.
“We are thrilled to work with Charlesbank to build on our considerable momentum and help us further grow and strengthen the business,” said Keith Weinberger, CEO of Empire Today. “The Charlesbank team brings significant consumer investing experience and operational expertise that will align with our mission of Making Beautiful New Floors Easy for our customers. As we enter this next chapter for our company, we are also excited to extend our successful partnership with H.I.G. and are confident that their continued support will accelerate our strong growth trajectory. It’s critical to thank all of our employees and contractors across the entire country who, due to their dedication every single day, deliver outstanding experiences our customers have come to expect from Empire Today.”
Empire is a market leader with a compelling customer proposition, an attractive business model, an incredible brand, and significant growth opportunities,” said Andrew Janower, Managing Director at Charlesbank. “We see tremendous potential in the business and look forward to supporting Keith and the entire Empire team in achieving their goals, building an even better company for employees and customers alike.”
Justin Reyna, Managing Director at H.I.G., commented, “We appreciate the dedication of Empire’s senior leadership team since our initial investment in 2016, and we look forward to continuing to partner with them for the next phase of growth as a national leader in do-it-for-me flooring sales and installations.”
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. William Blair & Company, LLC served as advisor to Empire in connection with the transaction.
About Empire Today
Empire Today, LLC, also commonly known as Empire Carpet and for its famous 800-588-2300 jingle, has been a leading provider of installed home improvements and home furnishings for over 60 years. Empire serves residential and business customers with a wide selection of products suitable for homes, small businesses, organizations, and commercial applications. Empire offers quality, name-brand products including carpet, hardwood, laminate, porcelain/ceramic tile, vinyl flooring and window treatments. The company provides shop-at-home convenience or on-site consultations, next-day professional installation on many products, quality products at great prices, and world-class service to about 75 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. With over three million satisfied customers, Empire Today is dedicated to customer satisfaction. For more information, contact Empire Today’s Press Relations team at PressRelations@EmpireToday.com or 847-583-3000, ext. 5248.
About Charlesbank Capital Partners
Based in Boston and New York, Charlesbank Capital Partners is a middle-market private investment firm with more than $15 billion of capital raised since inception. Charlesbank focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital financings, and also engages in opportunistic credit and technology investments. The firm seeks to build companies with sustainable competitive advantage and excellent prospects for growth. For more information, please visit www.charlesbank.com.
About HIG Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $45 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach:
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H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
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H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
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H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
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H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.
Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.
